This past week I decided to take on the daunting task of adding trees for some much needed height to my layout. For months I had avoided this task because one of the great challenges of model railroading is to fabricate a convincingly realistic tree. Sure there are many examples online which offer their own expertise, and I would like to thank them for their input. I've combined all their know-how into these simple steps. After experimenting with various scenery materials I found a winning technique (which I'm lucky to say came on the first try). Here is an image of the final product.
There are essentially two different home-made variations: a light green and a dark green. To blend those two colors together I add Woodland Scenics medium-green fine leaf foliage within the tree line.
The scenic materials needed to create the trees are as followed and showed in the picture below:
Woodland Scenics: fine turf yellow grass, blended turf green blend, underbrush forest blend, bushes light green, green poly fiber, & Hob-E-Tac adhesive
Noch: olive green leaf flake
Scenic Express: super trees (spray painted flat gray and stained with alcohol and India ink)
For the dark green tree, I first prep a super tree armature so that it is stripped of leaves, straightened, painted and stained. I then take small clumps of poly fiber and attach it to the armature in small pieces. Do not overlap the poly fiber as this will create an effect that will essentially give you "domes" for trees. I have found that you do not need to glue the poly fiber because the super tree and fiber together basically act like Velcro. The poly fiber serves as a lighter base to the darker foliage and offers a fuller appearance.
Next, I dab the tree with Hob-E-Tac and let it become clear and tacky. Afterwards I cover the armature with the underbrush forest blend. Once that sets up nicely I spray the body of the tree with a max-hold, unscented hair spray.
With the hair spray creating a sticky surface I sprinkle on the olive green Noch leaves for texture. I then sprinkle the green blended turf and a conservative amount of yellow grass.
For some visual interest I finally add some uncovered super tree branches to simulate dead parts of the tree. The now finished dark green tree is pictured below.
And the light green tree sets up same way initially, except I do not add the poly fiber. With the lighter foliage I like to see the shadows on the inside of the tree. I apply the Hob-E-Tac directly to the branches and once it becomes tacky I cover the super tree with Woodland Scenics light green bushes.
Once again I spray the tree with the high-strength hair spray, but this time I only sprinkle the Noch olive green leaves and a light dusting of yellow grass.
The first image if this post shows how this color tree can complement the larger, fuller darker ones. And to complete the blending of the trees as I mentioned I use the medium green fine leaf foliage.
With these techniques you can create trees that not only hold up to the eyes of the viewers but also hold up to close-up camera shots. So I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I hope I was able to bring some inspirational realism to your modeling endeavors. Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment.
Nick
Modeling the Long Island Rail Road & New York and Atlantic Railway
